New Year’s viewers got an earful from CNN anchor Don Lemon, who started to rail about a dreadful 2016 after downing tequila shots and getting his ear pierced. And then the network cut off his mic.

Reporting live from a New Orleans bar, the tipsy 50-year-old ushered in the new year alongside Brooke Baldwin by lambasting the old.

As the bands started to play “Auld Lang Syne,” the cameras cut away to celebrating crowds and fireworks bursting in air – but the sounds of clinking glasses could still be heard.

“Happy New Year!” Lemon could be heard saying. “Oh my God! I need a little more — pour me a little more, a little more. Perfect. That had a big head on it. I can’t hear a damn thing. So, 2016 was awful…”